I f you`ve had a hankerin` for some cowboy chow and crooning, grub and glory, and yodels and yahoos, dust off your white hat and swagger on over to the historic Elkhorn Lodge Sunday, May 30, at 6 p.m. for the first in a season of chuckwagon dinners. The family fare will be followed by a stage show by Vic Anderson and the High Country Cowboys, at 7 p.m. The cost is $25 for adults (steak, $32); military/seniors discount $22 (steak, $29); kids 6-12, $15; kids 3-6, $11; kids 3 and under, free. Reservations can be made by calling (970) 586-4416. Walk-in tickets are also available.

Following the opening on May 30, the chuckwagon dinner will whet visitors` appetites Wednesdays through Sundays throughout the summer.

Anderson said he has been on a quest for five years to get a chuckwagon dinner up and eating. He had participated in the popular Lazy B Chuckwagon Dinner that ran for more than 40 years and he missed the jawing and whistling.

"As many as four generations remember the music and food at the Lazy B," the Elkhorn Lodge chuckwagon brochure states. "We cannot use that name, and have moved to the Elkhorn Lodge. But we intend to make it as close to the Lazy B as we can.

"Vic Anderson, guitar/vocals, was a member of the Lazy B Wranglers, and is a champion yodeler and master whistler. An original Montana Cowboy himself, Anderson provides authentic True Western grit, reminiscent of the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry era, when the Good Guys wore white hats.

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Liz Masterson, guitar/vocals -- her new CD, 'Roads to Colorado` was named Best Western Album of 2009 by the Academy of Western Artists. Dan Knauf, 'Spur,` bassist/vocals, is versed in all types of music, but loves the feel and sound of cowboy, or Western, music. Tom Nugent, fiddle/vocals, began playing fiddle at age 5 and teaches privately and at the Alaskan Folk Arts Camp in Anchorage, Alaska."

Beans and biscuits will be a staple of the dinners provided by the cook, known as Wishbone. He`s from Nebraska, Anderson said, and he`s been cooking for years. Wishbone will offer "working ranch-hand fare. It`s a meal you`d eat after 'chousing` cows all day long," Anderson said.

Traditional chuckwagon dinners only included meat on rare occasions, he said, such as when a cow the herders were taking to market suffered a broken leg. Sometimes, there was fatback, and perhaps sourdough or cornmeal biscuits. Mainly, the food was basic, easy and light to carry, he said. The cowboys had no way to store meat. Sometimes, they would pick up a ham as they traveled through towns. The traditional meal is bean and biscuits, though. Through the years, tradition has added the aluminum-foil-wrapped baked potato, a peach half or applesauce and dessert of chocolate or spice cake.

Chuckwagon dinners for tourists began in the 1950s at the Flying W in Colorado Springs, Anderson said, and the Lazy B followed later in their wagon tracks. Entertainment often included such groups as Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers. Big names came by. Anderson plans on providing basic food and cowboy music -- which differs from country-western -- at the Elkhorn Lodge.

He explained the difference in music. In country-western songs, he said, the guy loses his girlfriend, dog and truck, cries and drinks some beer. Cowboy music, on the other hand, is positive and family-oriented. It`s pretty much acoustic, with a lot of harmonies, Anderson said. The two- to four-part harmonies are not barbershop, but more "Tumblin` Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Water." The music will also include some contemporary tunes written by himself and Masterson, and perhaps some cowboy poetry -- and yodeling.

Yodeling is defined as "a songlike cry in which the voice fluctuates rapidly between the normal voice and falsetto." Modern country/western yodelers include Slim Whitman, Patsy Montana and early pre-rock-and-roll Bill Haley.

The Band used yodeling on "Up On Cripple Creek." The most notable country-and-western yodeler was pioneer star Jimmie Rodgers. Gene Autry was another country-style yodeler. International pop star Jewel yodels. Pop star Shakira features similar vocal stylings. "The Sound of Music," by Rodgers and Hammerstein, contains a yodeling song, "The Lonely Goatherd," in which Mary Martin yodeled in the original production on Broadway in 1959. Gwen Stefani also yodeled "The Lonely Goatheard" at the beginning of her single, "Wind It Up." Soul singer Aaron Neville was inspired by Gene Autry`s yodeling to develop his unusual vibrato singing style.

In the "Double Yodel" by the Berrymans, the song goes: "Out of all these the one that made my pleasure total, Is that I found I had a pal to help me yodel, Yo del a day ee tee oh.""I expect to have a lot of humor (at the chuckwagon show)," Anderson said, "so people will leave singing songs with a smile on their faces."

The Elkhorn has two stages, one inside and one out, which will seat more than 300 people, he said. The entertainers will vary their music.

"We want to keep it fresh, so the locals want to come (back). Locals bring their (visiting) relatives."

The historic Elkhorn Lodge is the longest-running hotel in Colorado, opened in 1874.

"There are supposed to be more ghostly presences there than in (other establishments that boast them)," Anderson said.

Although the chuckwagon officially opens May 30, they won`t start performing five nights a week until June 2. The first show will be "like a shake-down, practice," Anderson said. He hopes to continue the show through the winter and have a Christmas show that runs through New Year`s, then start up again in May of 2011.

"The beauty of it is it`s absolutley family-oriented.....We can feed you in 20 minutes, and the gates open at 5 p.m. There may be rope tricks or a horse there, as well as vendors for the crowds to enjoy," he said.

At 6 p.m., ranch hands will ring the dinner bell. At 7 p.m. the show starts and lasts until 8 p.m.

"Three and four generations have come to the (chuckwagons at the) Lazy B. I have really missed it," Anderson said. "They passed on history."

A history that includes the real name of Roy Rogers -- Leonard Franklin Slye.

He talked about the Roy Rogers Museum in Branson, Mo., which shut down last year, auctioning off memorabilia. Anderson said he would be performing in one of Roy`s shirts. That`s not such a stretch.

"I`m a cowboy," he said. "I was raised in Montana, on a ranch. I like the whole cowboy ethic -- the work ethic, patriotism..... I like the fact we`re patriots."

And he can whistle about it -- he`s listed among the top 25 whistlers in the world and he`s a world-championship yodeler. He started playing music in bars in Montana when he was 12. He plays "from bars to barns, cornfields to concert halls, indoors or out, on foot or horseback, worldwide." He has performed in South Africa, Germany and Japan -- "bastions of cowboydom. They`re real aficionados. A lot of them go on cattle drives. They talk about (cowboy ) history with accuracy."

He observed that the old cowboys were outlaws, however, who "had to be by themselves." The idea has evolved to a more Christian cowboy of today and he said he is looking for a cowboy minister. They`ve become popular, he said.

"Some of the cowboy songs are semi-religious in nature," he said. "They talk about the outdoors and the stars as a stairway to the heavens."

Anderson spoke of Roy`s 10 rider`s club rules -- including eat all your dinner, honor Mom and Dad, honor the flag and pray. From the Web comes this collection:

Roy Roger`s "Rider`s Rules"

1. Be neat and clean.

2. Be courteous and polite.

3. Always obey your parents.

4. Protect the weak and help them.

5. Be brave but never take chances.

6. Study hard and learn all you can.

7. Be kind to animals and care for them.

8. Eat all your food and never waste any.

9. Love God and go to Sunday School regularly.

10. Always respect our flag and our country.

The Lone Ranger`s Creed

I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one. That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world. That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself. In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right. That a man should make the most of what equipment he has....That sooner or later...somewhere...somehow...we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.

One of the biggest cowboys, John Wayne, had this to say on the subject: "They were simple, direct men. They believed in things like liberty and minding their own business. Out of the lives of these cowboys have come all sorts of stories and legends, some true and some fiction. But the most authentic and dependable evidence of what the cowboys really were has come from the artists who pictured them in their true environment, risking their lives in stampedes, freezing or sweating, under the stars, by lonely campfires, rowdying in saloons, fighting, branding and whooping it up around the chuckwagons."

In case you`re called to cowboyup, that means tuff-up, get back on yer horse, don`t back down, don`t give up and do the best you can with the hand you`re dealt.

In his poem, "Cowboy Up America," Jeff Hildebrandt writes: "When a Cowboy`s in a pinch, he just tightens up the cinch, spurs his horse and rides right through it, cause that`s the way the Duke`d do it. He`d Cowboy Up."

Cowboy Wisdom includes the following gems:

If you get to thinkin` you`re a person of some influence, try orderin` somebody else`s dog around.

Don`t worry about bitin` off more`n you can chew; your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger`n you think.

Only cows know why they stampede.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

If you`re ridin` ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then, to make sure it`s still there with ya.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

There`s two theories to arguin` with a woman. Neither one works.

All I know is what I read in the papers.

Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.

Keep skunks, lawyers, developers and bankers at a distance.

Meanness don`t happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies. It messes with their heads.

Don`t corner something meaner than you.

Every trail has some puddles.

Don`t squat with your spurs on.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Don`t interfere with something that ain`t botherin` you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

Anderson called Roy Rogers the "most positive big movie star of all time. He never had anything bad said about him -- or his kids. He had nine kids (three died). They had traumas, but kept being Christians."

David Dary writes in "Cowboy Culture," "The cowboy symbolizes the free life, closely tied to the out-of-doors and Nature. The impact of land, the grass, the rivers and streams and gushing springs, the color of the sky and the clouds, the climate and the weather, these things are characteristic of the real and the mythical cowboy cultures."

Chuckwagon dinners at the Elkhorn Lodge may give Pilgrims a taste for the cowboyed-up life.